Archive for May, 2010
Alex Sanders, “King of the Witches”
Taken from the 1985 documentary “The Occult Experience,” this interview with Alex Sanders is fantastic—a real gut-buster. An attentive viewer should come away with an appreciation for flame-retardant loincloths and a demented curiosity about Sanders’ “second degree, which involved a third.” Warlocks beware the blue-haired Id.
Genetically Modified Soy Linked to Sterility, Infant Mortality in Hamsters
Photo: Bamboopidge (CC)
Jeffrey Smith, author and founder of the Institute for Responsible Technology, writing at Huffington Post:
“This study was just routine,” said Russian biologist Alexey V. Surov, in what could end up as the understatement of this century. Surov and his colleagues set out to discover if Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) soy, grown on 91% of US soybean fields, leads to problems in growth or reproduction. What he discovered may uproot a multi-billion dollar industry.
After feeding hamsters for two years over three generations, those on the GM diet, and especially the group on the maximum GM soy diet, showed devastating results. By the third generation, most GM soy-fed hamsters lost the ability to have babies. They also suffered slower growth, and a high mortality rate among the pups.
And if this isn’t shocking enough, some in the third generation even had hair growing inside their mouths—a phenomenon rarely seen, but apparently more…
Stephen Hawking Explains How To Build A Time Machine
Catharine Smith for Huffington Post:
Ever wondered if–and how–you could build a time machine?
Stephen Hawking, a self-described “physicist, cosmologist and something of a dreamer,” offers instructions on how to build a time machine in an article for the Daily Mail. “All you need is a wormhole, the Large Hadron Collider or a rocket that goes really, really fast,” the article promises.
Hawking roots his premise in Einstein’s theory of relativity, suggesting that since time moves faster in some places than others, it’s quite possible to move along this “river” into the future–but not back to the past.
“I used to avoid talking about it [time travel] for fear of being labelled a crank,” Hawking admits. “But these days I’m not so cautious.” Indeed, he recently wrote that humans should fear aliens and likened the inter-species exchange to what happened between Christopher Columbus and the Native Americans.
Hawking even suggests what he might like to do…
Pan Sonic’s Mika Vainio Interview
Via Technoccult:
Klint Finley: I guess I’ll start with, just to get it out of the way, the announcement has been put out that Pan Sonic has split up, so was this an amicable split?
Mika Vainio: Well, let’s say that we don’t have any plans to start again, but maybe we do one day. It’s still open, but I don’t think, at least for a couple years, we will not do it.
So are you willing to talk anymore about the reasons behind the split or do you want to leave it at that?
Yeah, why not. There has been no argument or bad spirit or anything like that. It’s just that after, we’ve been doing this for over 15 years, it’s time to stop and concentrate on our own solo things. [...]
The record business has been going through a lot of transitions lately through music piracy through the Internet and there’s also…
Ali G Talks To Naomi Wolf
Not new, but with Naomi Wolf back in the news (see the recent disinfo story “Naomi Wolf: What Price Happiness?”), worth another look:
Artist Commits Suicide Online as a Work of Art (well, sort of)
From The Art of the Prank:
Thousands of people watched powerless while a person was hanging from the ceiling, slowly swinging, for hours and hours. It happened yesterday, in the popular website Chatroulette, where people from all over the world can anonymously and randomly see each other through their webcams and chat with perfect strangers.
The hanging man was in fact Brooklyn based artist Franco Mattes…
Listening to Prayer Halts Brain Activity
Photo: Sergei Frolov (CC)
Believers and non-believers alike, please chime in. This is sort of how I felt when I had to attend church as a kid (I never went into a coma, although I did get really, really bored). Your experience with praying may have been different back then and still is today.
Andy Coghlan has written, what I think will be a contentious article for disinfo.com readers, on New Scientist:
When we fall under the spell of a charismatic figure, areas of the brain responsible for scepticism and vigilance become less active. That’s the finding of a study which looked at people’s response to prayers spoken by someone purportedly possessing divine healing powers.
To identify the brain processes underlying the influence of charismatic individuals, Uffe Schjødt of Aarhus University in Denmark and colleagues turned to Pentecostal Christians, who believe that some people have divinely inspired powers of healing, wisdom and prophecy.
Using functional magnetic…
DeIicious Iconography: The Flying Spaghetti Monster
Feast your eyes on this, true believers. Via notetoself.net:
Image: AKA Dillweed (CC) via Flickr
On this, the first of May 2010, I am proud to release this piece of sacred art which I commissioned from Sarah Pierce. I welcome you to join me in silent reverence to His Savoriness, the Noodle in the Sky, our Saucy Master, The Flying Spaghetti Monster. May you be forever touched by His Noodly Appendage.
Will Anyone At The Most Powerful Investment Bank Go To Jail?
Will Goldman survive the assault? Will the threat of criminal charges being pursued against the world’s leading investment bank spill over onto others on Wall Street? Is the criminalization of the crisis underway, or is all this just a maneuver?
For the last two years, I have felt lonely and isolated with my calls for a jail-out, and insistence that theft, fraud and crime are at the heart of our economic disaster. I have written two books documenting my contention and just released the film Plunder The Crime of Our Time treating the economy as crime scene.
There are a few other voices out there making a similar claim: Former bank regulator Bill Black; U.S. Senator Ted Kauffman; and even billionaire investor Jim Chanos, among them. Most politicians of both parties and media pundits have dismissed the suggestion, preferring to believe that virtually everyone was to blame and, hence, no one was to…
Woman With Breast Cancer Gene Files First Genetic Discrimination Lawsuit In U.S.
Photo: CIAT via Flickr (CC)
Can you be fired for having bad genes? For the first time, the Genetic Non-Discrimination Act is being tested. Ewen Callaway at New Scientist writes:
In what may be the first US case of genetic discrimination since Congress banned the practice in 2008, a Connecticut woman claims she lost her job because she has a gene that predisposes her to breast cancer.
She and her lawyers filed a complaint with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities.
They allege that her employer, a utility company called MXenergy, violated a new federal law that protects people against genetic discrimination by employers and insurance companies, reports the Associated Press (AP).
Pamela Fink, a 39-year-old woman from Fairfield, Connecticut, alleges that she lost her job at MXenergy after she told the company that she had a mutation in a gene called BRCA2 that is linked to…
Where Does China’s Money Go?
We all know that China has huge amounts of money invested in the United States, but what about other nations? This item from Forbes maps the impressive and in some cases surprising global reach of China’s investments, which include billions and billions of dollars to everyone from Algeria to Greece to Switzerland. (Watches and chocolate?)
Image from Forbes.com
Fat Kids Get Bullied No Matter Who They Are
Photo: Walter Siegmund (CC)
Anyone who has ever attended school in America knows this is true — the surprise is that it’s “news,” but on the other hand if it serves as a reminder to parents and schools that serving up processed junk food to children is a very bad thing, then so be it.
For kids, a few extra pounds may invite trouble from the schoolyard bully.
New research suggests that just being overweight increases the risk of being bullied. And factors that usually play a role in the risk of being bullied, such as gender, race and family income levels, don’t seem to matter if you’re overweight — being overweight or obese trumps all those other factors when it comes to aggressive behavior from other children.
The study found that being overweight increased the risk of being the target of bullying by 63 percent.
“One of the reasons…
Dirty Girls Who Are Addicted To Porn
Not quite your average New York Times story:
LENEXA, Kan. — It was the final session for the women at Westside Family Church’s Victory Over Porn Addiction group, and the youngest member, a 17-year-old named Kelsie, had not had a good week.
“I slipped two nights this week,” she said, to nods of support from the other women in the group.
“I decided that every time I’m tempted I’ll just let everything out to God,” she said, “then pray specifically for someone else, do selfless acts, to get away from being selfish.”
The group’s leader, Crystal Renaud, offered gentle counsel. “Pray for yourself, too,” she said.
To the wide array of programs offered by evangelical megachurches like Westside, the group adds what Ms. Renaud says is something long overdue. While churches have addressed pornography use among the men in their congregations and among the clergy, a group for women who say they are addicted to pornography is…
U.S. Soldiers Remake Lady Gaga’s ‘Telephone’ Music Video
From urlesque.com:
If this is what it takes for our men in uniform to deal with whatever daily horrors they face, then bring on the hip-shaking, heart-pumping fabulosity.
Sadly, unlike the original version of Lady Gaga’s ‘Telephone’ video, Beyonce doesn’t make an appearance, but this little number’s coming straight out of Afghanistan and it is FIERCE.
Also, ferosh.
Living Your Life The Way Your Data Say You Should
Could you live your life like this? Do you know anyone who does? A report on what it’s like to live your life based on what your life’s data you’ve recorded on your computer say you should do, in the New York Times:
Humans make errors. We make errors of fact and errors of judgment. We have blind spots in our field of vision and gaps in our stream of attention. Sometimes we can’t even answer the simplest questions. Where was I last week at this time? How long have I had this pain in my knee? How much money do I typically spend in a day? These weaknesses put us at a disadvantage. We make decisions with partial information. We are forced to steer by guesswork. We go with our gut.
That is, some of us do. Others use data. A timer running on Robin Barooah’s computer tells him that he…
Not So Secret Weapons on Disinformation World News
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DARPA’s lost glider, big pharma’s bio-weapons, and psychedelic cures for addiction, all this week on Disinformation World News.
Don’t forget about the Disinformation Podcasts 2010 donation drive! If you enjoy what you’ve heard, give back a little to help keep our production going. More details in the episode.
Disinformation World News is a monthly news series with a humorous take on the strangest recent stories to hit the wire. Anchored by Raymond Wiley and Joe McFall, the series also featuring occult news from Austin Gandy’s Invisible College as well as little known history from Joe Nolan’s Insomnia.
We welcome listener-created segments, if they are of high quality. If you’re interested, please email me at ray@disinfo.com.
The Black Fridays: Esoteric Jam Session With Tracy Twyman
The Black Fridays Episode 18 — Tracy Twyman
Website • iTunes • Direct Download • RSS
Wes flies solo tonight and is joined in an esoteric jam session with none other than Tracy Twyman. Tracy should be no stanger to our listerners as she is one of the most prolific researchers covering our little corner of the world.
Covering everything from the Grail Legends to Tracy’s metamorphasis into a first-class economic researcher, we cover just about everything she has ever done! We hope you enjoy…
Was Nancy Drew a Racist?
It’s the 80th anniversary of Nancy Drew, but a funny thing happens when you read the original 1930 editions of her mysteries. There’s outrageously outdated choices of words (”‘What!’ the men ejaculated in astonishment” or “The girls accordingly enjoyed themselves by admiring each other’s dainty lingerie…”) And in Password to Larkspur Lane, Nancy Drew even shares a kiss with her female friend Helen.
“I’m not saying Nancy Drew was a lesbian. (Believe me, I still remember the pushback on our 2007 article, How Gay Were the Hardy Boys.) But sometimes the outdated language creates a problem…”
And even if all of this article’s vintage crime illustrations don’t hint at an exotic rope-bondage fetish, there’s another problem with the original 1930s editions: racism. Quotes from The Hidden Staircase and Mystery at Lilac Inn prove, as one publisher acknowledged delicately, that “Much has changed” in America.
“The modern reader may be extremely uncomfortable with the racial and…
